This week we've focused on three new services that help you find things you might be looking for -- whether they be eco-friendly adventures, jobs or apartments, or designers and developers.
Much Better Adventures
Quick Pitch: Connects adventure-seekers to recommended local guides, accommodation and tour operators, while supporting local business and rewarding ethical practice.
Genius Idea: Individuals can find sports travel adventures far from the well-beaten tourist path, while experiencing a new place in a sustainable way.
Mashable's Take: For people looking for adrenaline-pumping eco-tourism destinations, Much Better Adventures would be a good place to start. The site offers responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.
"From trekking with Mongolian nomads to sailing round the Greek islands, many Much Better Adventures directly contribute to conservation, sustainable development and research projects. Others ‘just’ involve staying with friendly people who live locally, share your passion for an activity, and are working toward a more sustainable future," says the site.
The homepage for Much Better Adventures asks you two fairly simple questions: What do you want to do, and where do you want to go? You choose what kind of activity -- for instance, snow, hike or water-related -- and then get more specific within each category. For example, I chose walk or hike, then narrowed it down with a multi-day trek/expedition. Next, I chose a continent, then country.
The results for Thailand turn up a 23-day trek that includes rock climbing, kayaking, swimming in waterfalls and mountain biking. The package costs about $2,600 USD per person and includes accommodations, taxes, guide and all transportation during the trip. That's not too bad for nearly a month of travel -- and travel that you can feel good about both physically and ethically.
The Guardian named Much Better Adventures one of the "best travel websites ever." It's based in the UK and was founded by Alex Narracot and Ed White.
Socialisting
Quick Pitch: Find apartments, jobs, and stuff from people you trust -- your friends and their friends.
Genius Idea: Help your friends, and let your friends help you, by knowing what your friends need or have available through social listings.
Mashable's Take: How many times have you seen friends on Facebook look for roommates or subletters? How many times have you sent emails to former colleagues enquiring about jobs? Socialisting tries to consolidate all of these searches socially, through Facebook. It lets you see your friends and friends of friends' listings for apartments, jobs, items for sale, services, workspaces, community activities and more.
"Instead of everything coming from strangers with the potential of scams – or worse – Socialisting keeps everything within two degrees of separation," says the site. "Everything you see is from someone you know or someone who knows someone you know."
Socialisting is able to do that by leveraging Facebook's API. After granting the app access to your Facebook information, you can see which of your Facebook friends are already using the app, and you can send them a request to connect on Socialisting. (In my case, only one person was already a member.) You can also invite your Facebook friends to join. You can go on to personalize your profile with interests, activities, work and education information, or post and search for listings.
Lawrence Lewitinn launched Socialisting in May. He was inspired by the social trend that followed the recession: friends were turning to Facebook looking for jobs. To better connect the job seekers with potential employers, he created a Facebook group, and from that grew Socialisting.
The idea behind the service seems smart to us, and far less sketchy than interacting with strangers on Craigslist. But right now the downside to Socialisting is there's simply no one to interact with at all. The service is only effective if your friends are also using it. If it can overcome that hurdle, Socialisting could be a promising source for finding many things you or your friends might be looking for.
WeekendHacker
